German Southwest Africa

(920 words)

German Southwest Africa

German colony on the Atlantic coast in southern Africa between Angola to the north, South Africa to the south, and Botswana to the east; the modern Namibia. Placed under the protection of the German Reich by Bismarck in 1884, German Southwest Africa was the only German African colony suited for substantial European settlement. Accordingly, the influx of German emigrants was actively encouraged.

The arbitrary attitude of the German administration towards the African population was marked by a high degree of cruelty. Thus in the war against the Herero and the Nama…